Space Weather is Real... and it could knock out your electricity.

by Anna Gretz

October 31, 2016

Home Battery

Space Weather made mainstream news this week, leaving many people asking, “How can I find energy security?” and “Wait… space, weather?” Luckily, both questions have pretty straight-forward answers. Let’s start with the second one.

Space weather isn’t something from a sci-fi novel. Earth isn’t the only celestial body with severe weather--the sun has it too, and it can actually have a devastating effect on the electrical grid on our planet.

Here’s how it works: charged particles flowing from the sun can trigger a “geomagnetic storm” on Earth. Storms like this can cause electronics to fail, as well as disruptions in navigation technology and radio signals. Earlier this week, the space weather center (yes, there is a space weather center) issued an alert about a serious G3 level storm. You probably don’t get alerts for geomagnetic storms on your phone, but if they get bad enough, they could take down huge sections of our power grid, and cause some major problems across the country… and planet.

You may have never heard of the possible catastrophic effect of space weather, but a lot of people are taking it really seriously… including the government. President Obama has issued an executive order to coordinate “efforts to prepare the nation for space weather events.” This means the government is paying a lot of attention to solar flares, solar energetic particles, and other events that could cause geomagnetic disturbances, and significantly damage the electrical power grid infrastructure.

When asked if the President’s measures were adequate, former senior security policy analyst in the Defense Department, F. Michael Maloof, said that the President was ignoring another possible attack on the electrical grid--one a little bit closer to home. Maloof said that an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, one that could incapacitate the power grid, could come from not only the sun, but from one of America’s enemies. Scientists have developed weapons that utilize the power of EMP. According to Maloof, a man-made high-altitude explosion could trigger an EMP attack, throwing the country into darkness, and into chaos.

But the government has a plan to deal with this, too, right?
Actually no.
Maloof also reported that the Department of Homeland Security has no planning directive as to how to respond to an event like this. Without an order for a National Planning directive, FEMA wouldn’t have any idea how to react in the case of an electromagnetic emergency.

The government doesn’t have a plan, but that doesn’t mean you can’t.
You don’t have to be left in the dark in the case of a widespread grid outage… or any power outage, really.

You can secure and protect your own energy.

It’s up to you to make sure you have back-up power--stored energy that you can tap into whenever you need it. Instead of wondering when the next power outage will hit, you can know that you’ll still have the electricity you need to keep your outlets up, your light on, your devices charged, and your refrigerator running. With this sort of security, you can know that your household, and those closest to you, are protected from anything the power grid throws your way.

Protecting yourself against grid failure is ridiculously simple.

Thanks to modern technology, you never have to be powerless. Due to growing supply, solar-plus-storage systems have dropped so much in price, basically every household can afford one.

Solar power and energy storage are quickly becoming mainstream, due to the lowered cost and clear-cut value. What used to be a luxury reserved for the upper-class is now a completely accessible household device.

Here’s how it works: solar panels soak up energy from the sun, generating power every day. This power is then stored in a home battery, which is charged and ready whenever you need it. Solar needs energy storage so you can still have power, even after the sun goes down. Energy storage needs solar so it can be recharged, even when the grid goes down.

Solar + storage make the perfect team, protecting your home from power outages--whether they’re coming from space weather, or a man-made EMP.

We believe in solar + storage so much, we just launched a new product that makes it available for everyone. We call it EnergyShield.

There’s not anything like EnergyShield on the market so far. We wanted to create a product that anyone could afford, but that provided enough power to meet all of your home’s energy demands in the case the grid goes down

EnergyShield is a solar + storage system that equips you with the power you need, and with it, the security you’re looking for.

Using a perfectly-scaled package of solar panels and lithium-ion battery storage, EnergyShield will protect your home against grid failure, future-proof your household against rising energy costs, and give you independence from a power grid you can’t depend on. On top of that, EnergyShield will save you money… forever. When you generate your own power with solar panels, you are tapping into a completely free power source: the sun. You can also save money by storing electricity straight from the grid when it’s cheapest, and use it when rates get higher in the evening. This is called time-of-use shifting, and it’s money-saving magic.

The weaknesses of the power grid are, we think, completely inexcusable. Experts say that a grid outage resulting from an EMP could cost between $1 and $2 trillion to repair. Instead, you could pay only $1 per day to protect your household from an attack on the power grid.

Future-proof your home from the next power grid failure with a Energy Security System from Swell.